F 154 
.DS6 
Copy 1 





■^^■c^-^¥ijJ^<^u. 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE SENATE OF PENNSYLVANIA 



IN COMMEMORATION OF 



HON. ISRAEL W. DURHAM, 



LATE A SENATOR 



FROM THE SECOND DISTRICT, 



TUESDAY, MARCH 7. 1911 



i-S^^^Ol'2-' 






*»-♦=%) 



iAN 29 1$^3 



(2) 



\? 



'^' 



RESOLUTION. 



In the Senate, 
March 8, 1911. 

Resolved (if the House of Representatives concur), 
That one thousand (1,000) copies of the proceedings 
of the memorial services, held in honor of the late 
Honorable Israel W. Durham, be printed for the use 
of the Senate. 

HARMON M. KEPHART, 
Chief Clerk of the Senate. 

The foregoing resolution concurred in March 13, 
1911. 

THOMAS H. GARVIN, 
Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives. 

Approved— The 15th day of March, A. D. 1911. 

JOHN K. TENER. 



(3) 



A 



(4) 



PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE SENATE OF PENNSYLVANIA 

UPON THE DEATH OF 

HON. ISRAEL W. DURHAM, 



In the Senate, 
Tuesday, February 2L IPIL 

On motion of Senator Salus, the following resolu- 
tion was twice read, considered and agreed to, viz : 

Resolved, That a committee of eight members of 
the Senate be appointed to draft suitable resolutions 
on the death of the late Senator, Israel W. Durham, 
who died on June twenty-eight, one thousand nine 
hundred and nine, and present said resolutions at a 
special meeting to be held on Tuesday afternoon, 
March seven, at two o'clock. 



(5) 



u 

^^0 



(6) 



MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS AND 
ADDRESSES. 



In the Senate, 
• Tuesday, March 7, 1911. 

AFTERNOON SESSION. 

Pursuant to adjournment the Senate was called to 
order at two o'clock post meridian, the President Pro 
Tempore, Mr. Crow, in the chair. 

PRAYER. 

Prayer was offered by Reverend Harry Nelson 
Bassler, as follows : 

Almighty and everlasting God, Thou who hast 
created us and breathed into our mortal bodies the 
breath of life, into Thy presence we come, at Thy 
throne of mercy we humbly bow, beseeching Thy di- 
vine blessing upon us this day and upon this service. 
AVe know that our lives are precious in Thy sight. We 
know that in the midst of life we are in death and that 
man's stay here is as a flower of the field. He cometh 
forth as the grass in the morning, it flourisheth and 
groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth 
— for our days are passed away in Thy wrath ; we 
spend our years as a tale that is told. O God, we thank 
Thee this day for the blessed memory of him who has 
lived and passed away. We thank Thee for his strong 
manhood, as it was exemplified in his stay in our 

(7) 



Memorial Services. 



midst ; we thank Thee for the years in which we were 
privileged to mingle with him. May all that he has 
said and done be as good seed sown in good groimd 
and redound to Thy name's honor and glory. We pray, 
Master, Thy special blessing upon those who bow 
under the great burden of sorrow; be with them, com- 
fort, strengthen and keep them; wipe the tears from 
their eyes and pour the oil of gladness on their hearts. 
Lift up the heads that hang down and strengthen the 
souls that are overburdened. We pray Thy forgive- 
ness for our sins this afternoon; speak to us and call 
us closer to Thy side, that living here in the light 
of Thy countenance we may be crowned with life ever- 
lasting to abide with those who have lived and passed 
on before. May Thy divine benediction rest upon all 
that is said and done this day. We ask it in Jesus' 
name and for Jesus' sake. Amen. 

Mr. SALUS. Mr. President, by the direction of the 
committee appointed to draft resolutions expressing 
the sentiments of the Senate on the death of the Hon- 
orable Israel W. Durham, I offer the following reso- 
lutions : 

RESOLUTIONS. 

Whereas, Almighty God in His wisdom ordained 
that the Honorable Israel W. Durham, of the Second 
Senatorial District of Philadelphia County, should be 
called to his last resting place, and 

Whereas, He endeared himself to all with whom he 
came in contact both in public and private life, and be- 
cause of his ardent and persistent devotion to the cause 
of his fellow man and his unselfish loyalty to the in- 
terests of this Commonwealth, he was elected to this 
body by his constituents ; therefore, be it 



Hon. Israel W. Durha 



m. 



Resolved, That the Senate of Pennsylvania, 
in appreciation of the sterling qualities and high 
unselfish character of our late member, extend to 
the family of the deceased Senator our sincerest sym- 
pathy in their great loss, and direct that a copy of 
these resolutions, duly engrossed and attested, be for- 
warded to the members of the bereaved family of the 
deceased. 

SAMUEL W. SALUS, 
ERNEST L. TUSTIN, 
WILLIAM C. SPROUL, 
WILLIAM H. KEYSER, 
JAMES P. McNICHOL, 
JAMES K. P. HALL, 
EDWIN H. VARE, 
CLARENCE WOLF. 

On the question. 

Will the Senate agree to the resolutions? 

ADDRESSES. 

Mr. SALUS. Mr. President and members here as- 
sembled of the Senate, I believe that it is just in ac- 
cordance with the custom on occasions such as this 
that it should be proper for me, representing as I do 
the district from which our late lamented member 
came, to say a few words in regard to the manliness 
and the character of the man for whom these services 
are being held. If I came from another district, if I 
came from a place far from where he came, the fair 
reputation of that late lamented member has been so 
heralded by his deeds and achievements that I, as well 
as every other man who takes the interest of this 
Commonwealth to his heart, would be able to speak 



10 Memorial Services. 

of his achievements. But coming as I do from his im- 
mediate neighborhood, knowing him as I did from the 
days when I first went to school, I can but tell you of 
my recollection of him, not only in my political life, but 
in my boyhood days, and of him there was said by all 
that knew him one thing that showed his manliness, 
his character, more than all things else that I can re- 
member, and that was that he was the young man's 
friend, that it was his ambition in life to start the 
young man on the right road, to stand by him and see 
him go step by step upward and onward until that 
young man or that number of young men shal! have 
accomplished something in this life; and the best 
proof of the fact that that represents his char- 
acter can be seen by the many young men in 
public life to-day who are doing justice to 
themselves and to the Commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania, who had their first start, their in- 
ception, in the guiding hand of Israel W. Durham. 
Those men range from Justices of the Supreme Court 
of Pennsylvania down to the humble ward worker, and 
among the young men in politics in Philadelphia par- 
ticularly, there is a unison, a companionship of brother- 
hood as it were, of the followers of Israel W. Durham. 
I know of no time within my life that I have failed of 
the power of speech more than I do now, that I may 
fittingly picture to you a portrait that would do justice 
to the character of this man, but my vocabulary fails 
me. I am not fitted for the occasion. Here was a man 
reared in the commoner walks of life. Here was a man 
educated in our public schools, that which is the bul- 
wark of our nation, that which is the foundation of 
American grandeur and success. In harking back and 
looking into the histor}- of the great men of our nation 



Eon. Israel W. Durham. 11 

we come to but one forcible conclusion, and that is 
that the cornerstone of their greatness lies in the fact 
that they have had the benefit of our great educational 
system. Israel W. Durham was a commoner; his edu- 
cation was gotten in the grammar school, but immedi- 
ately upon leaving school he started out in the battle 
of life, and it might be said that after all his calling 
was that of a politician. That possibly was his calling, 
but in that calling he won the admiration and the re- 
spect of every man who dealt with him. Every one 
knew that his word was his bond and somehow, some- 
where or some place, under some condition, some one 
well named him the peerless leader, and peerless leader 
he was, a leader of men somewhat different than the 
leaders that we know in many walks of life. He was a 
man who was led by the friendships that he made, by 
the word that he kept and by the goodwill and the will- 
ing hand, and not by force, not by power, but solely be- 
cause of the fact that those who learned to know him 
learned to love him, and once they had learned to love 
him learned to follow him. You never knew anything 
else but to move onward and upward behind his guid- 
ing star. For the young men in Philadelphia politics 
the star of Israel W. Durham was the north star that 
led them on to success. And now I think it may well 
be said of him, as ofttimes has been said of others be- 
fore, "Well done, good and faithful servant," well done, 
you have left behind you only the fondest memories 
and fondest recollections of those who have known you 
in your life, and may your example be followed by the 
generations yet to come. 

Mr. TUSTIN. Mr. President, In the short time that 
I have been in the Senate, the Grim Reaper has been 
most busv. 



12 Memorial Sovices. 

"Like other tyrants, death delights to smite 

"What, smitten, most proclaims the pride of power 

And arbitrary nod. His joy supreme 

To bid the wretch survive the fortunate , 

The feeble wrap the athlete in his shroud 

And weeping fathers build their children's tomb." 

The young and talented Roberts, the courageous and 
forceful Crawford, the stalwart Republican, George 
Vare, the equally stalwart Democrat, Rowland, have, 
with others of our number, passed to that bourne from 
whence no traveler ere returns. Among those who 
have left us, however, none has possessed as large a 
personal following as Senator Durham. In the politi- 
cal life of our State and municipality of Philadelphia, 
he was a potent leader. Born in Philadelphia, October 
24, 1856, he received a public school education, and 
subsequently learned the trade of brickmaking. At an 
early age he turned to politics and identifying himself 
with the dominant party of that city, he soon became 
one of the acknowledged leaders and finally became 
supreme in the councils of its party. 

In 1885 he was elected a police magistrate of Phila- 
delphia; was re-elected in 1890, and in 1897 he was 
elected a State Senator from the Sixth District, to fill 
the unexpired term of Hon. Boies Penrose. He was 
again re-elected in 1908, to take the place of Senator 
Scott, and died while a member of the Senate, on the 
28tli day of June, 1909. He possessed in a large degree 
a wonderful magnetism, indomitable courage, unques- 
tioned loyalty, and above all unimpeached veracity. 
The strongest attribute of his character, however, was 
the personal affection which he inspired in his fol- 
lowers, thousands of whom followed not on account of 
his position, nor of his power, but from genuine heart- 
felt affection for Durham as a man. 



Eon. Israel W. Durham. 13 



This trait in his character furnished his strongest 
political power and doubtless came from the beautiful 
affection toward the members of his family. The lov- 
ing care of his aged father, his brothers and sisters, 
nieces and nephews, form a most pleasing picture in 
his eventful and stormy life. He possessed a philoso- 
phical mind, accepting success or failure Avith equal 
unanimity, and prior to the illness which clouded his 
later years he often quoted from James Whitcomb 
Riley : 

"I've alius noticed, great success 
Is mixed with troubles, more or less; 
And it's the man who does the best, 
That gets more kicks than all the rest." 

His quiet charities and unselfish generosities were 
best known only to his immediate circle of friends ; few 
were the appeals to his generosity that did not receive 
substantial consideration. Hundreds of the destitute 
and unfortunate throughout the city of Philadelphia 
will not only miss his liberal help but his kindly in- 
terest and disinterested advice. 

He had his faults ; no man can come into the lime- 
light of public life whose failings do not become public 
property and in the publicity gain in number and mag- 
nitude. But he rests in his last quiet home — let him 
that is without sin cast the first stone, and let the 
others of us remember him for his pleasant smile, his 
cheerful greeting, his great sympathy, his prompt help 
and his absolute loyalty to his friends and the party in 
which he was an honored leader, 

Mr. McNICHOL. Mr. President, This is an occasion 
on which I would, if I gave expression of my thoughts, 
ask to be excused from sa3'ing anything, and after lis- 



14 Memorial Services. 



tening to the magnificent recitals by the two preceding 
Senators, I find it very difficult to give expres- 
sion to my feelings at this time. I had been and 
was particularly associated with my dearest of friends, 
the late Senator Durham, and traveled with him 
through the turbulence of the last fifteen years of pub- 
lic life as well as in a business life, and to undertake 
now to picture the characteristics and the qualifications 
and the qualities of the man to me would be almost a 
task that would consume more time than I could find 
to give expression to the words. There is no man in 
the State of Pennsylvania, nor was there any man in 
the State of Pennsylvania, who did more, from 
the standpoint of having a personal interest in 
the welfare and development of the State of which he 
was a resident, than did Senator Durham in leading 
and co-operating with his advice and with his work in 
securing proper representatives and co-operating with 
the people of Pennsylvania in placing in high official 
positions men who, if they carried out his desires and 
his wishes, would have been and have been a credit to 
the State of Pennsylvania and the offices to which they 
were elected. There is no man in the city of Philadel- 
phia who did more to bring about a development and 
an extension of its growth as one of the greatest cities 
of the Union than did our friend, Senator Durham. Of 
course, in the ramifications of public life, as said by the 
preceding speakers, men have got to stand and be the 
target of all conditions and opposition of thoughts or 
ideas that might develop in the minds of people for 
ulterior purposes. In all my dealings with him, I can 
say truthfully that they were always of an honorable 
character, and of his charitable nature that there will 
be a lomr while before there will be one whose cliaritv 



Hon. Israel W. DinJiaui. 15 

extended in such a broad space or in more walks of 
life than did that of Senator Durham, and in the dis- 
pensing of that charity there was no singHng out of 
either race, creed or color. To him charjty meant all 
that the good Lord desired it should be when He gave 
forth His sanction to what charitable work should 
consist of. As to his reverence for home, if we had 
such to-day in the different walks of life, there would 
be no necessity in a large measure for the development 
that we find in these Legislative bodies of the disposi- 
tion to take the child from its parents and put it under 
the care of some other person or institution. From the 
day that he was able to know anything and could dis- 
cern things until the day that he died, the reverence 
that he had for his parents, the reverence that he had 
for his sisters and for his brothers, and the reverence 
that he had for mankind in general, was an example 
that, if followed out, not only in the confines of the city 
of Philadelphia, but throughout the State of Pennsyl- 
vania, would show that home is truly the place for the 
development of all that is good in all of us. And that in 
the person of our late departed friend, Senator 
Durham, I want to add that Philadelphia and Pennsyl- 
vania certainly have lost a great man and a good 
friend, both to the city and to the Commonwealth. 

Mr. SPROUL. Mr. President, I have not prepared 
any formal remarks for this occasion, but I cannot let 
the opportunity go by without saying a few simple 
words expressive of my feelings toward Israel W. 
Durham. When I came to the Senate in 1897, Judge 
Durham, as he was called, was already active in 
politics, and later in that session he became a member 
of this body. At that time, I had entirely different 



16 Memorial Services. 



views regarding the eternal fitness of things 
in Republican politics in the State with those 
held by Senator Durham, but I nevertheless 
was treated so absolutely fairly and kindly by 
him that I realized at once that in him were the 
qualities of leadership which even then his friends 
were pointing out would make him what he afterwards 
became, the peerless leader in Philadelphia. In later 
years I became very well acquainted with him. I 
learned of his loyalty to his friends, his generosity to 
all about him, his kindness of heart, and his devotion 
to the family which his old time partner and colleague 
has so feelingly alluded to, and I gained the greatest 
and most absolute re&pect, regard and friendship for 
Senator Durham. Those qualities which he had are 
among the very greatest that a man can have. Really 
I think if I were to put forward the three things which 
can most be admired in the man, these three things 
w^ould certainly be his truthfulness, which was one of 
his greatest characteristics ; his absolute fidelity to 
friends through thick and thin, and his devotion and 
kindness under his own roof. I remember that I 
watched, as almost everybody else did, the progress 
of the disease which finally ended in his taking away. 
I saw the way that he viewed what he knew better 
than those around him was an almost incurable mal- 
ady, and I saw the patience with which he met that 
condition and the cheerfulness with which he met the 
world under those disadvantages, and then friendship 
which I had so long entertained became really a great 
deal more than friendship. I was awa}^ ofif yonder on 
the other side of the country, engaged in some business 
up in the State of Washington, when one night I picked 
up a Spokane paper and saw that Israel W. Durham, 
the great Republican leader of Pennsylvania had sud- 



Hon. Israel W. Durham. 17 



denly passed away. I was all alone and my feelings 
at that time were really — well, the situation got very 
close to me. I felt a great sense of personal loss. 
You have different feelings regarding different people 
and Durham's loss to me was, as it was to a great 
many other men within the reach of my voice, a direct 
personal loss, and I could not help but think that 
night, as I thought of him going out from that home 
which he loved so much, of those verses of John Hay, 
which I thing I can still repeat : 

"My short and happy day is done, 
The dark uncertain night comes on. 
Before my door the pale horse stands, 
To bear me away to unknown lands. 

His whinny shrill, his pawing hoof, 
Sound terrible as the gathering storm, 
And I must leave the sheltering roof, 
And the joys of life so soft and warm. 

Tender and warm the joys of life, 
Kind friends, the faithful and the true, 
My rosy children and my wife, 
go sweet to kiss, so fair to view. 

So sweet to kiss, so fair to view. 
The night comes on, the lamp burns blue, 
Before my door the pale horse stands. 
To bear me away ft) unknown lands." 

And the question recurring, 

Will the Senate agree to the resolution? 



18 



Memorial Services. 



The yeas and nays were taken and were as follows, 
viz : 







YEAS— 50. 




Adams, 


Heacock, 


Manbeck, 


Sones , 


Alexander, 


Herbst, 


Martin , 


Sproul, 


Baldwin , 


Homsher, 


McConnell, 


Thomson , 


Buckman, 


Huffman, 


Mcllhenny, 


Tustin , 


Catlin, 


Hunter, 


McNicbol , 


Vare , 


Clark, 


Jamison, 


McNichols , 


Wasbers , 


Cooper, 


Jarrett, 


Miller, 


Weingartner, 


DeWitt, 


Jones, 


Morgan , 


Wertz, 


Endsley , 


Judson , 


Nulty, 


Wilbert, 


Fox, 


Keyser, 


Powell, 


Wolf, 


Gerberich , 


Kline, 


Salus, 


Crow, 


Hall, 


Knapp , 


Shields, 


Pres. pro tem. 


Hays, 


Kurtz, 


Snyder, 
NAYS— 0. 





All the Senators having voted "aye" the resolutions 
were unanimously agreed to. 

Mr. KEYSER. Mr. President, I move the Senate 
take a recess until three o'clock. 

Mr. TUSTIN. Mr. President, I second the motion. 

The motion was agreed to. 

At two forty post meridian the Memorial proceed- 
ings were completed and the Senate took a recess until 
three o'clock post meridian. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



014 209 413 7 



